


To Be Left Alone

by Riley_Ludicrous



Series: Once was lost(Now I'm found) [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Child Neglect, Coming of Age, Deal with a Devil, Flirting, Future Norenminhyuck, I'm sure his mother is actually a great person, Invisibility, Kid Fic, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan-centric, M/M, Platonic Cuddling, but not in this one, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-09-27 18:31:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17167130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riley_Ludicrous/pseuds/Riley_Ludicrous
Summary: Lee Donghyuck is invisible.That is, no one except his mother and the doctors that delivered him know that he exists.





	1. Chapter 1

Donghyuck is invisible. 

That is, no one except his mother and the doctors that delivered him know that he exists. He was born, and then wrapped up in a soft baby blue blanket, and then everyone looked away for half a second, and when they looked back, he was gone. His mother was apparently prepared for this—“deal with the devil,” she told the doctors, who nodded thoughtfully, having never seen this particular consequence, but familiar this kind of business in general—so a few days later, she gathered her things and her invisible baby, and left with an easy gait, completely at ease with herself. 

She put him to bed in a cardboard box that she guessed he could fit in, put in a pair of earbuds, and moved on. About every other hour she nursed him, and when the box was filthy she threw it out and carried the kid into the shower with her to wash him. She talked to herself a lot, and Donghyuck learned too quickly that she didn’t care about what he had to scream or whimper. 

It didn’t make any sense how he survived the first few years without dying of some disease from unsanitary conditions: by all accounts he shouldn’t have, but the devil may care about those children born under his deals. 

He tried babbling at her to get her attention, stringing almost-words together in almost-sentences that would’ve had a child psychologist or any other mother crying in awe. He toddled outside with her when he could avoid the door and got sidetracked by the wide-open parks for moments at a time before running to catch up with his mom. (He’d only heard her being referred to as Jieun when there was company, but some of her friends or coworkers or whatever they were had kids, and the kids called their adult-ladies mom, so he assumed his relationship with Jieun might be similar.) Despite all his attempts, the most attention she gave him was food, and a strange lesson on how to use the toilet, a big white thing that he fell into the first few times trying to use it.

When he was four years old she brought home a bunch of random books, hunted him down with a call of his name, and began reading to him. The material was an amalgamation of magazines and children’s books and a dictionary, and she took the most unusual care in pointing out each word and sounding it out. She did that for another 6 months, deeming him acceptable when he could read The Hobbit out loud to her, and went back to her old hat of doing little to parent him beyond leaving out food. Sometimes she brought home a new book for him to read. He was a bit like an invisible pet. 

The thing that really changed his life, though, was when he heard her turn on the radio when he was 5 years old, and she was excited and happy and telling him that she had “finally made it, he actually did it, I’m famous!”

He realized that his mother had the most beautiful voice, like an angel’s really, which was really ironic considering that the other thing he found out was how his mother had given birth to him, the son of Satan, in exchange for it. She told him he was “so hideous that your father said he would make you invisible to protect you.” She said this with an affectionate and misaimed pat on the head. 

The next day she left a week’s worth of microwaveable meals in the fridge and set out on tour. She said she would be back eventually, and to just look up recipes on his shiny new phone when he ran out of pre-prepared meals. He blinked once in acceptance as he watched her car go, and then again to keep the tears at bay because tears had never done him any good.


	2. Baltering Into the Sharing of Existence.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donghyuck makes a new friend.

His mom didn’t come back for another month. Donghyuck had to empty out the fridge, and then get into the freezer. Thankfully the freezer was much closer to his height, but unfortunately almost everything else in the kitchen was high above his reach. He had to use a chair for some things, and his old high chair for others. 

He ran out of books to read, and one can only reread the same set of books so many times without a single new one before it becomes too tedious to continue. He went outside, to the park he’d seen the first time he went out, and was too scared of being bumped into to do anything. He came back to it every day though, because the outside was a lot cooler than anything in the limits of his house. He talked to himself when he was sure none of the kids were close enough to hear him. He sang to himself like the voice on the radio that belonged to his mom.

He had figured out how to turn on the radio all by himself. At first he only kept it on while he could hear his mom’s voice and then he would turn it on the second the strange talking people came on, but then he accidentally switched the station and he heard another voice, more like his than his mom’s, but still different and older. The talking voices came after, and he left them on to hear them say, “That was Michael Jackson, and you’re listening to the classics of pop!” He looked up Michael Jackson on the phone he’d been using for recipes. He found Wikipedia and then Youtube, and that was a whole afternoon of entertainment.

He sang songs by Michael Jackson to himself, a few feet away from the playground, and he got so caught up in the lyrics and the humongous sky and the trees that he didn’t see the little boy come up to him and tilt his head in curiosity. 

The boy skipped closer and tripped on one of Donghyuck’s legs which definitely got his attention, and made the boy shriek loud enough to get the attention of his own mom on the bench with some other moms. She and her friends looked over at him, and he flushed the attention, and shook his head furiously. Donghyuck stared up him with wide eyes, and when the moms were mercifully looking away, the boy looked in his direction. 

Donghyuck gradually sat up and tried to scoot away from him, but the boy caught the grass moving and reached forward to touch it, too fast for Donghyuck to get away. He squeezed his eyes shut and cringed back at the feel of someone poking his thigh.

“I knew something was over here!” the boy cheered, and he skipped around Donghyuck. He nearly fell onto the Devil-kin’s shoulders and then swooped down to sit next to him. “Who are you? Can you talk? What were you singing?” 

He rambled on, question after question, and Donghyuck only gaped at him. His questions petered out after a good minute, and he just stared at the empty space with a bright eye smile that would have shocked Donghyuck into silence all over again if not for the fact that he was already stunned. 

The strange boy pouted and reached forward again to poke him, getting close to his ear this time. “I know you’re there,” the boy insisted, and brought his other hand up to the invisible face to pinch both cheeks. 

Donghyuck scowled and grabbed the hands, carefully putting them down on the ground between them. With the awe balanced out by annoyance he found he could speak up, and he told the boy his name was Donghyuck and, “Shouldn’t you know who the king of pop is?” The boy’s name was Jeno, and no, he didn’t know who the king of pop was, so Donghyuck said he would bring the phone to the park tomorrow to show him. 

“I’ll be at kindergarten tomorrow, though, won’t you?” Jeno countered. Donghyuck, of course, wouldn’t be going to kindergarten tomorrow. Eventually they decided that they would meet up again on Saturday, in six days, and while Jeno ran to his mom to tell her the news, Donghyuck grumbled to himself about weirdos who talked to invisible boys and didn’t know who Michael Jackson was. 

When Jeno left much later, though, after starting to call him ‘Hyuckie’ and learning the lyrics to ‘Man in the Mirror’, though he couldn’t sing it quite right, and Donghyuck had to go home alone and make himself a sandwich, he thought to himself that Jeno was the best thing. Maybe Jeno would be like Gandalf, taking Bilbo away on an adventure. 

Did Devil’s children get to be heroes? It seemed like he should probably be some kind of villain. Maybe Jeno would actually be the hero and Donghyuck would grow up to be his villain. He shook his head anxiously, tried to go back to the idea that he’d be Bilbo. He wouldn’t even mind being a boring, nervous hobbit that fainted at the mention of dragon if it meant he could be on the same side as Jeno, who’d heard him and talked to him and squeezed his cheeks. Besides, Bilbo managed to make enough food for thirteen dwarves as they were showing up, if Donghyuck could do that he probably wouldn’t have to make himself sandwiches ever again.

This trail of thought led him to Jeno with a long beard and a gray robe, and had him giggling into his sandwich. He scarfed down the rest of it and turned on the radio to the station that had Michael Jackson on it and sang along to whatever songs he could, quickly learning the chorused to the ones he didn’t. He danced around and on top of the furniture, and after a few songs was so tired he thought he could go to bed early.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may have possibly scrapped the markhyuck plan? idk, I kinda wanna make this a '00 line fic. Let me know what you think! As for the speed I'm updating, that has a lot to do with Christmas break. I don't guarantee that it'll be like this most of the time, but I'll try to maintain it while I have the free time. Also, I'm really excited I managed to get in 1k words!


	3. Kisses Have Healing Properties

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Donghuck meets Jeno again.

He looked up kindergarten and found lesson plans and Youtube videos of Sesame Street to fill his copious free time over the next week, but by the time Saturday had finally come he was antsy for more human contact. Just being around the other boy, being recognized and spoken to, left him beaming to himself for two days straight after the first encounter. He had never been touched that affectionately by his mom or anyone before Jeno had reached forward to squeeze his cheeks. 

He woke up early and ran to the park by the path he knew by heart now, and he found no one there. He hadn’t set a time. Pouting, he sulked over to the swings. He usually avoided them, since swings weren’t supposed to swing on their own, but this early, he realized, no one else would be there. He could swing higher than any of the normal kids, he guessed. He could swing so high that if he jumped he might—

“Hyuckie, is that you?” He tumbled out of his seat and scraped his knees on the wood chips below, shrieking all the way. Jeno raced forward and flailed his arms to find him, and when they did, they wrapped around him in a hug, Donghyuck freezing between them at the contact. Jeno leaned back, too quickly for Donghyuck to regain any sense and hug back, and worriedly patted his shoulders. “Are you okay? Do you need me to kiss something better? Mom always kisses my hurts better…” He rambled on to himself, mumbling about an invisible mom, “I bet she wants to kiss it better.”

Donghyuck began to shake his head but caught himself at it, encouraging the boy that, “You can do it. My mom won’t want to.” 

That took Jeno aback. “Don’t moms always wanna kiss their kids?” Donghyuck awkwardly muttered a no. To distract Jeno from the topic of moms, he grabbed his hand and put it on his leg, right above the cut. He tried to make his fingers point at the injured knee and they both awkwardly felt around it. When they found the scrape, he commanded, “Kiss it there.” Jeno giggled at him and leaned down. Donghuck felt himself freeze up again, remembering that he had no idea what kissing was.

He stared at Jeno in disbelief as he brought his lips to his knee. Who would want to touch someone with their lips? “What are you doing?” he crowed. Jeno quirked his head. “I told you I’d kiss it better.” 

“What are the healing properties of your lips? Woudn’t it get you sick?” Jeno appeared shocked at this. “Kissing is good for you! How could it make you sick?” Donghyuck huffed and began ranting about the germs, and “Don’t you know that blood is filled with germs?” Jeno was incredibly confused by this idea. 

After listening to Donghyuck gripe about how disgusting blood was for at least five minute, his eyes lit up as though he was remembering something. He interrupted Donghyuck, piping up that, “You were gonna show me music by that king guy!” This effectively ended the rant and had Donghyuck fishing out his phone. He had a video already loaded and shoved the phone into the other boy’s hand, and apparently it worked if his gasp was anything to go by.

Jeno silently watched the entire thing before handing it back to his friend. Donghyuck grabbed the phone and Jeno’s hand and, almost timidly, asked if he had liked it. Jeno smiled at him with both his eyes turning into crescents and nodded.

They spent another hour like that, marathoning Michael Jackson to Donghyuck’s delight. Jeno didn’t mention any boredom, scared of making Donghyuck sad, but after the watching the last one for the second time in a row he stood up and dragged Donghyuck with him. His sister, babysitting him while his mom was shopping, had her eyes glued to her phone, so he pulled Donghyuck up on the playground with him. 

“I can be the knight and you can be the prince that’s cursed by the dragon to be trapped in a tower! And I’ll come rescue you on my horse, and when I find the tower I’ll say, ‘You’re a big bully, Dragon,’ and—“ Donghyuck interrupted here to say, “The dragon’s name is Smaug.” “‘You’re a big bully, Smaug!’ and I’ll fight the dragon with my light saber, like,” and he made weird, slish-slashy sound effects, and you’ll—“ 

“I, Prince Hyuckie of the Hobbits will come down from the tower and sneak up behind the dragon while you—“ 

“stab Smaug’s wing, which will make it so he can’t fly,” 

“and then while he’s freaking out about his wing, I’ll jump onto him with my amazing jumping powers and pull out Sting and stab him in the back!”

“What’s Sting?”

Donghyuck rolled his eyes. “Bilbo’s sword in The Hobbit,” he explained. Jeno gaped at him, “Isn’t that a big kid book? My sister is reading that right now!” He had apparently forgotten about the story they were acting out by now, easily sidetracked, which really did make it a wonder as to how he had watched an hour’s worth of music videos by one guy, and skipped over to where he guessed Donghyuck was, plopping down to sit by him. Donghyuck allowed himself a smug smirk and began another rant about his favorite book, and how silly Bilbo was in the beginning but that it wasn’t really his fault because he didn’t even know all the dwarves were coming.

Jeno thought to himself that Donghyuck was probably magical since he could talk for so long and still sound interesting, and was invisible, and read big kid books. He said as much to Donghyuck, and when he didn’t hear a reaction, he reached over to pat his shoulder. He seemed to shiver at the contact and Jeno drew back his hand slowly.

Donghyuck grabbed the hand. “You’re magical, too,” he insisted, “because you can find invisible boys, and you have a light saber, and your kisses make people feel better.” 

With that he shyly pulled Jeno’s hand back and trapped it between both of his. He looked own pensively. Jeno smiled brightly at him.

“Let’s be best friends,” he decided. Donghyuck was powerless to refuse him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Should I introduce Jaemin next chapter? Was this chapter good? As always, hit me up with that constructive criticism and validation, friends. I wasn't sure what I was gonna do with this chapter, but here we are. Sorry for my actual lack of real knowledge on Michael Jackson. If you have some suggestions there, I'd love them. Thanks for reading! Also, if you like Seventeen and weird soulmate AU, go check out that fic of mine. It's one of my favorites that I've written so far.


	4. Three is Company

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaemin joins their group.

They decided to meet again at the park the next day, a Sunday, in the afternoon. Jeno said he would save some candy from his aunty at church for Donghyuck, which led to a long discussion of candy and its varieties. In the end Jeno promised he would try to get as many flavors as possible, so Donghyuck could try them all. Before he left, he convinced Donghyuck to let him kiss his knee again, just to be sure it would heal perfectly.

The next day, Donghyuck woke up early. He looked at his phone expectantly in the hopes that it was at least past eight in the morning and pouted when he saw the screen read seven thirty. He stubbornly pushed his head back against the pillow hoping to speed up the time, but it was useless. Finally he rolled out of bed and stomped to the kitchen. While he spooned up his cereal, as slowly as possible, he looked up another Sesame Street video. He already knew most the content, but he guessed he should try to make sure he was at the same level as other kids.

He finished the episode, and then scoured Youtube for more entertainment. He watched music videos all morning, mostly sticking to the ones that looked colorful and had titles that sounded cute. Finally he looked at the time and found it getting close to the mutually agreed-upon time. He shot up and raced out the door, running all the way to the park. 

When he gots there he frantically checked the time again, only to grumble dejectedly when he realized there were still another fifteen minutes. He dragged his feet through the wood chips and plopped down on a swing, wrapping his arms around the chains to fiddle with his hands. He began pushing himself high up in the sky, above the bar that held the swing up, and imagined he was riding one of the eagles that had saved Bilbo and the dwarves. He let out a squeal as he swooped back and forth.

Just like the day before, Jeno caught him unaware, but he was less clumsy this time, or more paranoid, and gripped the chains tight as he pulled a hard stop, dragging his feet across the ground. When he turned to see his friend, however, there were two boys there, Jeno beaming at the swing and the other boy gaping. Donghyuck drew back cautiously, but Jeno seemed to sense his reluctance in the face of a stranger that knew he existed—had an effect on existence?—and ran forward to grab him, flailing his arms to find him. Once he had Donghyuck by an arm, he pulled him back into a side hug and over to the new boy.

“Nana,” he said referring to the boy, “this is Donghyuck. Hyuckie, this is Jaemin!”

Jaemin lifted a hand to wave awkwardly, and Donghyuck followed his example before awkwardly bringing his back down and fumbling with what to do to greet him. Jaemin seemed to realize this too and flushed before sticking his hand forward. Donghyuck hadn’t shaken anyone’s hand, but he’d read about the concept and mirrored Jaemin with his own hand. He hadn’t taken into consideration the fact that mirrored hands would not work until he was grabbing the other boy by the back of his hand.

He sighed at himself in disappointment and brought his other hand up, encapsulating Jaemin’s right hand with both of Donghyuck’s own. He pulled it forward, looked his new aquaintance in the eye as much as he could, and a “Sorry,” fell out of his lips.

Jaemin, thoroughly confused by the action but also somewhat endeared, giggled his lips into a smile. “Can I call you Hyuckie, too?” he asked. “Okay,” Donghyuck managed. 

Jeno grinned at the awkwardness and took Jaemin’s other hand so that the three of them were connected in a strange circle. “Hyuckie reads big kid books, so he’s great at pretend! Let’s play that. Hyuckie, you be the prince again, and I’m the knight, and Nana, you can be the wizard!” Then he ran towards the playground, dragging the other two with him. Donghyuck was still holding Jaemin’s hand in front of Jeno, but he let it go at the force of Jeno’s dragging. 

Jaemin fit seamlessly into their game, making up funny words to cast spells on the villain, the dragon from yesterday’s cousin, there to avenge his family their loss. As he screamed his death, he promised that they’d be taken down by a sea monster next time. 

The boys sagged down after their incredible victory with flushed faces and heavy gasps. Jaemin felt around in the direction he’d last heard Donghyuck and joyfully held his hand up. He pulled him closer and then reached for Jeno to tackle them both in a group hug. Jeno whined at him, but Donghyuck stiffened for half a second before squeezing them both tightly. 

Jaemin turned to him with a thoughtful expression and asked a question that had been burning away at him ever since he first saw the swing move on its own, “Why can’t we see you, Hyuckie?” Donghyuck pouted but cuddled closer to him. “My dad thought i would be too ugly so I’d need protection; that’s what my mom says.”

The other two struck up loud protests like, “You don’t sound ugly!” and “I bet you’re really cute!” making him blush before continuing, “My dad’s Satan, so he’s probably really ugly, so really, I probably am, too.”

His friends fell silent at that, but only for a second before renewing their earlier protests with the addition of, “You’re really cool, so you can’t be much like your dad anyways!” Their logic was vaguely sound, except that he didn’t think his mom was very cool either, and he’d never met his dad, so there was a high likelihood that Satan was actually pretty fun. He voiced this to the other two. They quietly considered this for another moment.

Finally Jeno spoke up and said, “Maybe you’re not like your parents at all.” Jaemin nodded solemnly in agreement. 

Donghyuck rolled his eyes at them but smiled, sitting up and pulling his cuddle-buddy up with him. Jeno, having escaped only a short while ago, followed their lead. Suddenly Jaemin jumped up. Jeno and Donghyuck turned to look where he running, and Jeno jumped up to run after him toward the lady with her hands on her hips. Donghyuck stared after them, scared they would leave without saying good-bye, when finally both of them ran back.

They decided to come back next Saturday, in the morning. They smashed him between them in a Donghyuck sandwich, and then ran back to the waiting lady who had an amused look on her face. She thought they’d made an imaginary friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jaemin's here! And I got in more discussion of Donghyuck's origins and affection for Donghyuck's touch-starved soul. Did you know that most Americans are touch starved? If you think you need more affection, chances are you do. I hope you all have friends to cuddle! As always, give me that constructive criticism and encouragement! Thanks for reading!


	5. Gradual Time Skip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys discuss Donghyuck's body heat, heredity, and make plans.

Donghyuck’s mom got back the following Thursday. She waltzed through the door looking ten years younger, and when Donghyuck tried to tell her about his new friends she waved it off and giggled at him, like he had just said the cutest thing, and she couldn’t believe the imagination of her kid. Donghyuck sighed and skedaddled out of the house, muttering, “Off to see my imaginary friends,” without looking back.

They might not be there at all, but it would probably be better than staying in his own, where he’d gotten pleasantly accustomed to no one looking through him. Even Jeno and Jaemin, faced with interacting with him, at least tried to look in his direction when they talked to him. He aggressively began swinging, sure that everyone else would be at kindergarten, or whatever else it was that seen kids filled their time with. 

He stayed there till late that night and came back early the next morning. When Saturday finally came, he was using high quality, olympic-level swinging technique, if swinging were in the Olympics. He was sure he could manage the swinging without any of the shock from the last two interruptions.

Soon enough, his friends alerted him to their presence, and he scrambled out of his swing to get to them. When he was arm’s length away from them, they managed to pull him between them into a hug. 

He had been incredibly confused about hugs at first. They were similar to kisses in that no one had ever given them to him before, and that they seemed as though they’d be unpleasant but turned out nice, hugs far more than kisses. They made him feel seen, which in turn made him feel bubbly and warm all over. It didn’t matter that no one could look him exactly in the eye, because hugs were so close that eye contact was cast aside for holding your temple next to the other person’s and feeling their warmth all over. 

When they let each other go, Jaemin was furrowing his brows, looking right at Donghyuck’s face. “You’re hotter than Jeno and I, like if you were sick, and you felt like that last week, too, I think, except I wasn’t paying attention. Are you sick? You didn’t sound sick last week, do you feel sick now?”

Donghyuck blinked at the rapid-fire interrogation, regaining his wits enough to hesitantly reply with, “How do you know if you’re sick? I think this is normal for me.” With that they started talking about being sick, which Donghyuck was sure he’d never been. In the end they pegged it on his heredity. “Satan’s probably hot because he lives in fire all the time, right?” Jeno wondered aloud.

They kept playing until noon when Mrs. Na called Jaemin and Jeno for lunch. They couldn’t come in the afternoon, or the next day, but they’d try their hardest to come in a week.

They fell into a pattern of coming to the park every weekend, though some weeks only one could come and others both could come for two days in a row. In the winter their visits were less frequent, once a month becoming closer to the average, and the next summer, when Jaemin and Jeno were about to go into first grade, they came nearly four times a week. They set up a tent with their dads the last two days of summer to camp near the park, and snuck Donghyuck between them at the campfire and in the tiny tent they shared. Then when the new school year started they were back to where they started.

It was the summer before junior high, when the two convinced their families to let them go camping on their own, and they stayed up all night, unafraid of being overheard. They got to the topic of Donghyuck’s invisibility, which Donghyuck was still sure was due to him being too ugly to be seen while the other two, Jaemin spearheading the argument, believed that their Hyuckie was the cutest being alive and should definitely be seen. 

“If only we could just talk to your dad, he would probably be able to tell that you’re adorable,” Jaemin mused, causing Donghyuck to firmly warn him that, “I can feel horns growing in: I’d be terrifying!”

Jeno responded to this be reaching to touch them while cooing over him, Jaemin not too far behind. Their hand were swatted away, and Donghyuck mumbled about them being sensitive, flushing secretly. Jeno voiced concerned at this, but Jaemin only raised an eyebrow. 

Desperate to get the attention off himself, he asked them about school. They pouted at him, but they didn’t make their many complaints. One winter, when he was barely seeing either of them because of the studying and the weather, and every time he did see them they complained about the studying and homework, he’d burst into a rant about how much he wanted to go to school, or at least be homeschooled, sniffing by the end of it. Their complaints were always measured after that, like he would yell at them or burst into tears if they said too much.

Jeno brought up a new dance club, and Jaemin excitedly said he would join, too. They quickly promised Donghyuck they would teach him the dances they learned, and he rolled his eyes at their eagerness. 

Eventually Jeno yawned, so Donghyuck affectionately burrowed closer to him. Jaemin scooted so he was as close to Donghyuck as Donghyuck was to Jeno, sandwiching them all together. The night air was cool, but Donghyuck was a human heater to the other two, a perfectly sensible reason as to why he was in the middle. 

“When school starts on Monday,” Donghyuck began softly rambling to them, “remember to be nice to any new kids, yeah? And if if you make any new friends and you wanna meet them on the weekends, don’t worry about me so much. If you meet someone who can ask Satan to make me visible, don’t worry about it, Jaemin. You’d probably have to sacrifice something for it.” With that he nodded off.

The other two met eyes Donghyuck’s head, the latter safely cuddled under Jeno’s chin. They nodded in agreement, already forming a plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! I was with family and without a laptop for the New Years, but here I am! Sorry for the time skips, but it had to be done for plot. Speaking of, I have a plot now! You'll never guess who's coming in next chapter, or you might if you've read all the chapter notes. Either way, I'm so excited! As always, give me encouragement and constructive criticism! I feed off it; I'm a comment vampire.


	6. A New Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeno and Jaemin meet the new kid at school and make him their research partner.

When Monday come, Jeno and Jaemin met up to walk to school together, anxious about seventh grade but spurred on by their new plan. They didn’t believe they’d have any luck finding a person with Satan on speed dial, but the school library for junior high was more likely to have some material on satanic rituals. All they needed was a short meeting with the guy and to get Donghyuck with them while they did it and seeing him would probably make him realize their best friend was totally not ugly, causing him to free Donghyuck from his invisibility. Their plan was fool proof.

They made it to school and all the way to lunch with that hope, not even the lack of classes together dampening their spirits. Then they went to the library and spent the while period looking for books with keywords like ‘satanic ritual’, ‘witchcraft’, and ‘how to bargain with the devil’, to no luck. After their failed mission, they stalked to their only shared class. 

Jeno desperately brought up the main library in town, to which Jaemin nodded silently eagerly, trying to hide his disappointment. This made the only other boy already in the class turn to them with suspicious look on his face. 

“What can’t you find in the school library that has you running off to the normal one?”

The two frantically looked at each other, scrambling to come up with excuses, but the boy rolls his eyes at them. “I can help you if you actually tell me.”

The two look at him suspiciously, like they hadn’t been weirder earlier, but before they could consider his help the teacher called order to the class that had gathered quickly while they were talking. Their stranger gave them a look as if to say he wasn’t taking back his offer. While the class sat down and continued to talk, to aggravation of their teacher, she began taking role. Before she got to either of Jaemin or Jeno’s names, she paused on one Huang Renjun, smiling cheerfully at the boy that sat quietly at attention. 

“Class, Renjun is new to our district, so please try to befriend him!”

Jeno slapped Jaemin’s shoulder, attacking him with his puppy eyes while griping that, “Hyuckie would want us to be nice to him!”

Jaemin was already losing his willpower, and nodded weakly while Jeno beamed his eye smile and reached forward to tap Renjun. The boy in question looked backwash a raised eyebrow, visibly double taking at Jeno’s cute smile. Jeno nodded quickly at him, and Renjun awkwardly nodded back. Jaemin would have laughed if he’d not been just as weak seconds earlier. Jeno, it seemed, was a weakness to many.

As they left class forty-five minutes later, Jeno excitedly made plans with a recovered Renjun before waving goodbye to both him and Jaemin. Renjen turned hesitantly to Jaemin, as if asking if Jeno was usually that disarming, and Jaemin nodded as if to respond that, yes, he was, and no, he would never get over it. Donghyuck, Jaemin thought to himself, probably had the most immunity to it, and that was on a good day.

When they met after school in front of the weird statue of their school’s mascot, Jeno had had another class with their new friend, and they were happily chatting away about the poetry they were supposed to write by the end of the week. Jaemin joined in, having been assigned the same homework, and they were soon half-complaining, half-legitimately-bouncing-ideas-off-each-other. As they got closer to their local library, however, Renjun brought up why they were even going there in the first place.

Jaemin, having forgotten any qualms about telling new people about Donghyuck, explained the whole situation to him, starting from the beginning and ending with what exactly they planned to do. Renjun, with only mild hesitance, agreed to help them with their search as long as he could meet the famed ‘Hyuckie’.

Surprisingly they found a whole shelf of books they could use. They each checked out as many as they could fit into their book bags before racing home to their unamused parents.

The next day, they gathered in the library to show each other their findings and read more. They’d need candles and chalk for any of the rituals they’d found so far, and possibly something to sacrifice if they wanted to make any demands, the books all advised. What exactly they could sacrifice was only vaguely hinted at, but the boys decided one of them could find something to sacrifice if given the ultimatum, especially for the sake of their Hyuckie. Renjun still hadn’t met him, but he watched the other two vow this with a fond look.

When they much period ended they raced each other to their next class and sat next to each other, to the apparent approval of their teacher. Renjun himself wasn’t sure how happy the teacher would be later in the year, but looking over to his two new friends to see them giggling and tugging on this sleeve to tell him whatever they’d just thought of, he couldn’t bring himself to care. 

After school that day, the three walked home, staying together as long and impractically as possible. They decided they would try to stop at the park the next day, just to introduce Renjun to Donghyuck, if all three of their parents agreed. When Renjun had to leave the other two, already having gone further than his house by a half a mile, they sandwiched him between them for a hug. 

Renjun smiled softly the whole way home, and then the next day when he made his way back to school. As he walked Jeno and Jaemin ran up from behind him and trapped him between them with exclamations of, “Injunie!”

They all chattered the whole way to school, discussing a mixture of Donghyuck and Renjun’s favorite cartoon, (“Moomin!” he told them brightly, pulling his sketchbook out of his bag to show them his drawings), and the poetry assignment due in two days, which had lost its stress-inducing nature by now. They were all allowed to stop by the park on the grounds that they were helping Renjun discover the neighborhood. 

After a day of classes and ritual-study in the library, they went to the park. Jeno and Jaemin were nearly bouncing on the way there, to the amusement of their new friend. Renjun was quiet most of the way, wondering if this Donghyuck would like him or think he was stealing away his friends and shun him or—

They arrived at the visibly empty park. At first glance, nothing was out of the ordinary, but the other two were clearly used to this and immediately ran to the swing set, yelling their friend’s name. Before they had said anything, he saw the swing moving, like there was a person on it, in wide swings that would’ve made his six-year-old self jealous. Actually, they made his current self jealous. He had no time to think about that before Jeno was introducing him to Hyuckie, an arm around transparent air. 

He made a split second estimation of where the head would be based on the shoulder and smilled. Bowing quickly he reached his hand forward to shake the boy’s hand and said, “I’m Renjun!”

His hand was grabbed and his body was tugged forward with it as the invisible boy wrapped his arms around him. “You’re wonderful at eye contact,” the boy whispered in his ear, with a smirk that Renjun could hear, and Renjun whispered back, “Call me Injunie.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Renjun! is! here!!!! 00 line is all together! I have all my main characters in! The writing gods have been working in my favor! I got to this point! I'm so proud, and so thankful for all the support you've been giving me! Let's keep going together! Comment if you are excited! Live in exclamation marks! Smile and give yourself a dose of serotonin!


	7. Gentlemen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaemin, Jeno, and Renjun finish making their plan.

By the end of an hour, a point which none of the three boys wanted to worry their parents past, Donghyuck and Renjun were as thick as thieves, laughing as the other two pouted about how, “Hyuckie wants to leave us for Injunnie!” Donghyuck easily agreed with the sentiment and the other two sent up fast protests. Before they left, they huddled Donghyuck into a group hug, now even more cuddly with three bodies trapping him in place. 

While they walked home, they held each others’ hands and swung them childishly. Renjun could join them in their griping over how cute Donghyuck was, but after a little while, they seemed to catch each other’s eyes with matching glints. 

“Injunnie, you’re as cute as Moomin,” Jaemin said, with a serious look on his face and the glint still sparkling in his eyes. Jeno raised an eyebrow as though he was confused, and responded like it was an academic discussion, “I think you’re mistaken, Nana, Injunnie is clearly much cuter than his Moomin.” Jaemin seemed to consider this with a melodramatic finger to the chin. “Quite right, Jeno-yah. I completely agree.”

Renjun sputtered, and hastily tried to make his escape when he saw the turnoff to his house. Jeno snatched him around the waist and snuggled him close. Jaemin attacked him from the other side before they finally released him, face burning.

When he got home, he finished his homework and looked over the ritual they’d agreed on. His mom had plenty candles they could use, so long as the devil didn’t mind vanilla lavender. Jaemin would bring the chalk, and Jeno would say the chant, which the other two were mildly terrified of. 

When he asked them about their reluctance, Jaemin said it sounded creepy. Renjun looked at him with a straight face and said, “Horror movies.” The boys decided not to touch on that.

He woke up early the next morning and strolled to school smiling broadly. His accomplices didn’t catch up with him until they were almost at school, so they walked him to his first class to make up for lost conversation. Renjun rolled his eyes at their behavior but found himself beaming at the attention. 

When they reached his classroom, Jeno held the door while Jaemin escorted him in. They’d taken his books while he was too busy talking to notice and gently placed them in front of him. They finally left giving each other a conspicuous high five and skipping down the hallway. The students already in the room were staring at him after they left, and he heard on girl whisper to her friends about how she wanted boys to pay attention to her like that.

He hurried his bright red face in his arms.

Thankfully they didn’t come to walk him to any of his other classes, and he was sure he wouldn’t see either of them until he was already most of the way to the library. Suffice to say, he was wrong.

“How did you get to my classroom before I had even left?” he questioned, slightly awed, but mostly flustered. They alternated snatching his books away and laughed good-naturedly at him. He sighed at their antics and glared at Jeno when he tried to steal the book bag from him. “Besides that, what’s with the sudden gentlemen act? The girls from first period think you guys are wooing me, which is odd considering how normal junior high boys woo.” He stared resolutely ahead while he said this, knowing he’d be blushing as brightly as he had that morning. 

The other two smirked at each other, and Jaemin spoke up, “Guess the other junior high boys need to step up their act. Do you like our gentlemen act? We’ve perfected it on Hyuckie.” 

That had Renjun blushing even darker, but he pretended to shrug it off. “Are Hyuck and I the same to you? Give us a cute nickname and act all chivalrous and hope we fall for you?”

Jeno was blushing with a shade close to Renjun’s, but Jaemin plowed on, reassuring him, “Don’t worry, it’s only the two of you. We have to catch up on all the years we missed with you!” He caught Jeno’s reaction and continued to him, “Aw, Jeno-yah, are you jealous of the attention our Renjun is getting? You only had to ask!” With that he threw his arms around his new victim, though Jeno would have argued that he’d been his victim the longest, and planted a loud smooch on his cheek.

Renjun laughed at his antics, pulling Jaemin away from Jeno and up to his side. He playfully whispered into his ear, “I want you all to myself,” and made obnoxious kissing sounds at him. Jaemin scrambled away, laughing loud enough to get them a look from the librarian as they walked into her domain, but Renjun and Jeno saw the flashes of red on his ears. They quietened down and picked a study table near the back. 

After they were done wheezing with laughter, they decided to each come up with two things they could sacrifice, a trait and an item. None of them had much in the sense of material goods, so they put their faith in the traits they could give up. They argued back and forth about it, not wanting each other hurt by their choices, but they eventually agreed to make the decision on their own, only to bring up when it was needed.

They slowly meandered to their first class after lunch, moods brought down by the conversation at lunch. Most of that period was spent in tense silence. Their next period, spent apart, left them regretful, and after their last period Jeno and Renjun raced to Jaemin’s classroom to give him the same treatment Renjun had received all that morning. Jaemin had guessed their intentions and was still in his desk, making small talk with the teacher when they came in. They picked up his books and walked closely by his sides. 

As they left the building, Jaemin reminded them they only had two more days until they next saw Donghyuck and carried out their plan. Renjun and Jeno echoed his excitement, and it was all they could talk about on the way to their respective houses, carefully avoiding the subject of sacrifice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought of posting this tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure I'll have another chapter finished by then, so here you go. Not a lot of Donghyuck in the last two chapters, sorry, but have some flirty norenmin to tide you over. Look forward to a ritual next chapter and a possibly surprising turn of events? If you can see what's coming, enjoy seeing it in writing when the time comes. Comment your encouragement and constructive criticism! Shoutout to @Fox_155 for the help! And to @johnil whose fic I've been reading for a little while and who came to read my stuff! Both of you are so lovely!


	8. The Devil, aka Satan, aka [UNKNOWN]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Devil is not quite what they expected.

Friday passed quickly for the trio, with the minor change added by their poetry assignment’s due date. Jaemin, in front of a room full of kids he’s grown up with, read verses about ambition and endurance. Renjun, to a bunch of kids he’d never met before this year and to his new friend, read about finding one’s place and clinging fears of what’s to come. Jeno read about undying hope.

They skipped on the way home, antsy for the next day to come, dilly-dallying in front of Renjun’s turnoff, Jeno left Jaemin’s driveway in a daze, and none of them slept deeply that night. They each woke up at the crack of dawn, and sped through getting dressed, breakfast, and teeth-brushing, before running to the park.

Donghyuck wasn’t even there yet. Renjun grabbed the chalk from Jaemin and started tracing a pentagram on the sidewalk while they waited, and Jaemin and Jeno placed the candles at each point. They were supposed to have incense, but the fact that the candles were scented made them decide to try it without. Renjun had checked his family computer at home for how much it would cost, and none of them had much money to begin with. Jeno, along with the act of saying a creepy speech in Latin, had decided to bring a food offering of leftover pie from the night before. The other two were skeptical of his mom finding out, but he shrugged them off. “I’ll just tell Mom I wanted my friends to try some.”

Donghyuck arrived just before they were going to actually summon the Devil. Predictably, he freaked out, and they had a long, whiny, loud argument about it. When they refused to back down, Donghyuck started sniffling which very nearly made them reconsider, but Jaemin pulled him close and nodded firmly at Jeno.

Jeno reluctantly began the chant. It wasn’t very long, but it was ominous, and the clouds gathered thickly above them making it dark, and it felt far too long, but when they saw a flicker in the middle of their pentagram, they wished his reading was pages long.

Jeno finished the phrase and the four huddled closely together, forming a barrier around Donghyuck. As they looked on resolutely, a silhouette began to form, over six feet tall and horned. 

Then the clouds pulled back and the silhouette was a man with soft-looking brown hair, kind eyes, and a black outfit. He had on a muscle tank that revealed runic tattoos down both of his arms. The man considered the huddle of preteens, and his eyes sparked in recognition at the face only he could see poking out from between his friends. “Donghyuck, is that you?”

He quirked his head and gently peeled his friends bodies away from him. “Dad?” he pondered out loud. The man smiled and looked him over, before scowling dangerously to the concern of the tweens in front of him. “What are you wearing?” He referred to the worn tank top and threadbare shorts Donghyuck had on. 

Donghyuck raised his eyebrow at this. “Mom’s old clothes.”

The adult snapped his fingers, and Donghyuck felt the material change to pants that covered his legs snugly, unlike the shorts that he had to cinch up with shoelaces, and a t-shirt. His apparent dad surveyed his friends and looked up and around. “Where’s Jieun?”

“Mom? She’s on tour,” Donghyuck replied awkwardly, “why would she be here?”

“She was supposed to call on me when you were old enough to be made visible to humans.” he informed him, “We knew people might react badly to an Asian baby with red hair, yellow irises, and runes up and down your arms. Even though you have horns now, you could just put on a beanie and people would assume you were a rebellious teenager or something. Heaven, you could take off the beanie and they might think it was a fashion statement, like a headband or something.”

Jaemin spoke up at this, “Satan, sir?” “Call me Johnny.” “Johnny, we wanted you to make him visible. His mom told him he was too ugly and that it was for his own good, but the way you describe him, he doesn’t sound ugly at all. I always thought he was actually adorable, and, well, you don’t make me sound wrong?” he ended on a questioning note.

Johnny frowned at the beginning of the speech, but he was chuckling at the boy by the end of it. “Of course I’ll make him visible. From what I’m hearing,” and at this he looked concernedly at Donghyuck, “I might need to take you home with me as well. I’m definitely not leaving you with your mom. I’ll probably take away her side of the deal as well, since she failed to hold it up to our standards. She was really your surrogate mother, anyways. We made sure all the pregnancy symptoms were minimized and that she had a painless labor. She doesn’t have much of a reason to fail in properly taking care of you.”

The boys, including Donghyuck, protested loudly about being him being taken away, but Johnny quickly put their fears to rest. “He can still visit the three of you, and I can make arrangements for you to come see him. I’ll go back now and tell Ten that you’re coming down, Donghyuck. In the meantime, the four of you can say your goodbyes till next time.” At this he vanished.

They stood in shock at the events that’d passed for half a moment before they noticed their friend, now fully visible in the aforementioned red hair, downcast yellow eyes, and tattoos, small horns looking through his hair. 

Jaemin squealed, “I told you so!” and wrapped him up in a hug, and Jeno and Renjun joined them. They were still like that, hugging each other tightly and shouting compliments into a blushing Donghyuck’s ears, when Johnny got back. He smirked at them and allowed them their last-minute fair wells. 

When they were finally ready to let him go, with a swear from Johnny that they could see Donhyuck next Saturday at the latest, he lightly put a hand on Donghyuck’s shoulder and they vanished like he had minutes prior.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If they'd had to sacrifice something, it would've been: homemade lunches in exchange for cafeteria food every day, weekends without school, etc. I'm uncreative and never planned for truly bad sacrifices to be made because I'm a wimp. Should I come make an epilogue or a sequel? Comment, please! :D


	9. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They enjoy the years that follow.

For the first two years after that fateful Saturday, the boys saw each other once a week, and for a sleepover in the summer. Donghyuck was still scared to ask for more, because he thought he’d be a nuisance, but when he confessed as much to his friends, who by then he’d long since recognized as the culprits responsible for the moths in his stomach, his friends told Johnny, and Johnny sat him down to firmly tell him he could never be a nuisance, even if he tried.

After that he saw his friends nearly ever day, as soon as all four of them were done with school.

That was another thing, school. Donghyuck had dreamed of school or at least a tutor ever since his mom had taught him how to read. It was possibly the only fond memory he had of her, and all her failings hadn’t ruined the concept for him at all. When he shyly asked Johnny and Ten for some kind of formal education, a week after he’d met them and while he still wasn’t used to all the attention but loved it, they’d jumped on it. (He never did get used to all the attention, but he also never stopped craving it.) They found him the smartest people that had been thrown in Hell, which surprisingly there were a lot of.

Things with his friends were a little different, too, but not so much because Jaemin had always championed the belief that Donghyuck was adorable, and the other two agreed on principle, so having the proof changes very little. They were all amazing at pinpointing where he was, including Renjun who’d only met him once before they performed the ritual, so not even that was different. They still had dog piles that devolved into cuddling, which Renjun was easily familiarized with. 

They all got older, and they individually freaked out only a little as they fell in love with each other, but that story is all its own. 

Ten, Donghyuck had learned, was Johnny’s boyfriend and co-decision-maker in a number of things, mostly Hell-related, most importantly Donghyuck. He once shyly but mischievously asked if he could call Ten ‘Mom’. Ten had smirked at him and said he could call him ‘Papa’. It made him trip on thin air, but he used it. It was a comfortable complement to Johnny’s ‘Dad’. 

He grew into himself, gradually becoming more confident with the years of parental love and the love he’d always received from his friends, choosing for himself a style he liked, that he could show off. Ten taught him how to apply makeup, which they all, including Ten, swore up and down he didn’t need, but if their Hyuckie without makeup was adorable, their Hyuckie with it was a being so obviously from Hell, there to tempt the helpless mortals, that they could barely bring imagine a complaint. Johnny had laughed at them when he came to pick him up. 

“I almost want to give them all the shovel talk,” he revealed to Ten later, “except that I know they’d all protect him with their lives.” 

They decided, when they were in their twelfth year of human schooling, that they would try to get into the same university, Seoul Institute of the Arts, Jeno and Jaemin for dance, Renjun for voice coaching, and Donghyuck for vocal performance, and they got in to their shared joy. They decided a sleepover at Jeno’s was in order to celebrate, because they were all still children at heart and a little scared of change.

“We have to be room mates,” Jaemin decided while they all sat in a circle that was lit by their flashlights perched together in the middle, “because, sharing with a four person dorm is probably one of the cheapest options.”

They nodded at him like his logical reasoning was the only reason they would consider such a thing, but they all knew they would want to be together no matter what. It was even more comical that he would need to provide such a proof when they were all touching in some way, leaning on shoulders, hands loosely grasped, head and feet perched in laps in Donghyuck’s case. They were all so attached to and grounded in each other’s presence that no one could have looked at them and not realized that they all trusted each other. They surveyed each other with faux solemnity for a moment before they burst into laughter. 

With faces all lit in patches, they basked in their childish revels and stayed up till the early morning. They woke up tangled together, unafraid of their destinies as long as they each kept close to the other three. They saw each other, and in that safe haven, they were assured.

After all, they would never let one of their own disappear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You get both an epilogue and a sequel, but the sequel might take a bit, yeah? I'll rest my brain from this universe, but rest assured, there is more. I've finished my first full-length multi-chapter fic! and I'm so proud of myself! Thank you to all the readers! I loved interacting with you so much!

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea what I'm doing with this, but here we go. Constructive criticism is much appreciated! For now I'll focus on pulling together a plot.


End file.
